


We've Come So Far My Dear Look How We've Grown

by skatetogether13, tstrash



Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: Angst, F/M, happy birthday winnie, kinda slow burn, theres a surprise not your average
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-20
Updated: 2018-05-20
Packaged: 2019-05-09 07:50:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14712060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skatetogether13/pseuds/skatetogether13, https://archiveofourown.org/users/tstrash/pseuds/tstrash
Summary: The first five times she feels the pressure build in her legs she ignores. She thinks she’s out of shape or needs more time in the gym, she doesn’t clue in that something could be wrong. But this time isn’t quite like the others, an unforeseen twist leaves Scott feeling helpless once again.





	We've Come So Far My Dear Look How We've Grown

**Author's Note:**

  * For [winnified](https://archiveofourown.org/users/winnified/gifts).



> Winnie, happy birthday! (The war is still on).

The first five times she feels the pressure build in her legs she ignores. She thinks she’s out of shape or needs more time in the gym, she doesn’t clue in that something could be wrong. When she can’t get through the first two-and-a-half minutes of routine without wincing in pain, she keeps quiet, even though he’s the one she trusts the most.  
It becomes too much when one early morning practice she works through a step sequence, feels the burn slowly creep up her legs starting at her ankles, she presses on until she collapses. He’s next to her in an instant.  
“Hey kiddo, you okay?” his voice is worried but calming. She rolls onto her hands and knees letting out an aggravated “yes” before slowly pushing herself up to her feet again, feeling the immediate numbing sensation take over with no warning. She slowly strokes over to the players boxes, hardly stopping before she completely sinks into the bench behind the boards, laying down and her water bottle pressed to her forehead, hoping the cold would distract from the burn. It didn’t.  
He followed closely behind her, considering they were the only two on the ice this morning. “Are you sure, we can come back to it this afternoon if you like?” he suggests, the fear in his voice grows, still not fully understanding what is going on with the girl in front of him.  
“I think I’m okay, I just need five minutes” her voice flat, exasperation dripping with her words, a frown still dawns her face.  
“Okay, I’ll give you your space” he replies, defeated, before skating to the other side of the rink and around in a couple laps, not sure what he is supposed to be doing to fill the time.  
As she starts to regain some normal feeling in her calves, she pulls her head up from where it was resting uncomfortably on the bench, takes a long pull from her water bottle and carefully makes the step back onto the ice before stroking over to him.  
“Let’s keep going” she tells him with the determination and fire she’s always had.  
He wastes no time suggesting what they work on next, and they get right back into it. She only notices the pain three more times in the next hour of their practice. 

\---  
Although she didn’t have to stop for the rest of practice he still notices something is off. Instead of their usual post-practice tradition of hot chocolate, she decides to opt out for today and he takes her home right away. As she walks up the pathway to the front door she lazily untwists her top knot and a cascade of dark brown hair flows into her bright green eyes. She lets herself in, exhausted by the frustrating practice she ignores the two sets of eyes staring at her from the living room, her mother and sister could wait, she needed space. 

\---  
Her sister finds her in the bathroom trying to unscrew a bottle of ibuprofen with tears in her eyes. She glares at her, and when her sister’s kind eyes don’t budge she yells “get out! Mom tell J to leave me alone.” Her sister’s face immediately sinks and she slams the door to the bathroom before running across the upstairs hallway to her room.  
She swallows two tablets chased with water before curling into a ball on the floor of the bathroom, tears pooling on the floor where her cheeks rests on the cool tile. “Why is this happening?” she chokes through her tears. She lays still for at least 10 minutes, hoping the ibuprofen numbs the physical pain, but also secretly begging for emotional relief. 

\----

She heads to her room to do some schoolwork, she may be training for a world championship but falling behind is not an option. She shuts the door to her room, hoping that her family gets the idea to leave her alone. She’s so deep in thought making last minute edits to her assignment due at midnight that she doesn’t hear the hushed whispers that come from the kitchen downstairs. 

\----

She’s a couple sentences away from completing her assignment when a soft knock raps on the door. “Come in” she says quietly, not bothering to lift her head up from her assignment.  
“Hey sis” a soft voice squeaks as her sister peeks her head in the door.  
“Oh, hi” she replies. “What’s up?”  
“Are you okay? You seemed really upset earlier” concern growing in her voice.  
“Yeah, J, I’m okay” she tells her earnestly as she opens her arms, welcoming her sister into her embrace. “Let me finish up this assignment and we can watch a movie?” She suggests.  
“Okay! I can go make popcorn while you finish” her sister suggests before running down the stairs and into the kitchen where her parents are uncharacteristically tense, sitting on opposite ends of the couch.  
\----  
“I’m just- I don’t think she should practice tomorrow. Because what you’re telling me isn’t adding up.”  
“You can’t take her out of training! Not when worlds are a couple months away!”  
“Let me at least take her to the doctor. Then we go from there.”  
“She only stopped the one time. I think she’s fine. She did work really hard this morning. You’re overthinking this.”  
“I’d love for you to be right here, but something isn’t sitting right.” 

\----  
When they hear their daughter come down the stairs, their eyes lock with hers.  
“I’m just getting some popcorn, we’re going to watch a movie” she tells them timidly.  
“Okay honey” her father says with a smile on his face. She can tell it wasn’t there a minute ago.  
The agonizing minute and thirty seconds the popcorn takes is the most uncomfortable time between the three. They exchange shy glances and smiles, not knowing if any of them should speak or not, before she grabs the hot bag from the microwave and running back upstairs, skipping a step until she is back in her sister’s room.  
\----  
She’s surprised that her mom doesn’t appear right away, no comforting hug or warm cup of tea and a chat. Perhaps most surprisingly, the encouraging words that usually come after a frustrating practice are missing. She sits through Funny Face and laughs with her sister when she’s supposed to, but her usual boisterous laugh is small and hollow. 

She’s about to turn off her light when she hears a knock at the door. “Yeah? I’m just heading to bed” she says.  
“Just wanted to say goodnight and check in” her mom says.  
“Well, I had a very busy day, practice, school, more practice and then I finished my assignment, oh and someone put a chocolate bar in my skating bag at the rink today” she says in an attempt to gloss over her less-than-stellar practice.  
“I hear you had a tough practice”  
“Yeah…” she takes a big breath, “I think something might be wrong” she bites her lip. “Mom I think we should get it checked out”.  
“Of course, it’s all going to be okay, no matter what I love you” she says before placing a tender kiss to her daughter’s forehead. 

\-----

It wasn’t a typical day. She didn’t go to practice in the morning, she was (finally) on time to school and she wasn’t going to practice that evening. She didn’t want to talk to him that morning so she pleaded with her mom to tell him. She hopes he understands. 

Her mom picks up on her unusually quiet energy on their drive, “hun, I know this is scary, especially the not knowing. I know you have Worlds coming up but please, just be honest with the doctor, he needs to know what hurts in order to help you.”  
“But what if… what if… if I can’t skate again. That would kill me” she says in the tiniest, fragile voice, eyes quickly filling to the brim with tears, “that would kill him”.  
“Nonsense, he loves you and will support you no matter what” her mom says without missing a beat. 

As they head into the doctor’s room, she pauses, suddenly overcome with fear.  
Her mom instinctually reaches for her hand “You’re stronger than whatever this is”. When her feet don’t budge her mom starts to coax her along, “c’mon, you’ll feel better when this is over, we can even grab ice cream on the way home, maybe your dad will even join us”.  
“No way, he doesn’t have a sweet tooth” she smirks, “I got all my sweet teeth from you”.  
Her mom rolls her eyes, “He’ll come, he -”  
“Hi there, please take a seat on the exam table, which one of you lovely ladies is my patient today?” the doctor asks, ushering them into the room. 

\----- 

“It’s pretty much only been in my right leg” she began, “over here is where the cramping is the worst” she says sliding her hand down the outer front portion of her shin. “I can make it through most of the short before, you know, it really becomes too much, but getting through the free has been hard…”  
The doctor looks at her with inquestivie eyes, “short? Free?”  
“She’s a figure skater” her mom explains  
“Ah my niece is too! She takes lessons once a week at the arena down the road. I saw her group’s performance of Cinderella last week - adorable!”  
“Oh how sweet! This one,” her mom cocks her head towards her, “is a national champion, her father and I are extremely proud”  
“I’m supposed to be heading to Worlds soon but the more I skate the worse it feels”  
“Any numbness?” he asked.  
“Yeah” she says remembering how hard it was to skate after her fall the night before, “I get that sometimes but mostly it just burns there.” She bites her lips then continues “please help me I just want the pain to stop.”  
“And when you skate, or exercise, does the pain dissipate or get worse when you stop?”  
She pauses, “I guess it goes away, not all at once though”

He nods and, turning to the computer behind him, he begins to type, slowly, and methodically. She sits on the exam table, green eyes filled with worry and waits. And waits and then she does the only thing she can think of, her breathing exercises. They usually calm her down and help soothe pre-competition jitters, but in that moment, sitting on the hard exam table, all she could think of was that the stakes were higher, and that he wasn’t there. 

\----  
“It’s going to be a minimum for 4-6 weeks for an MRI and to get a more conclusive diagnosis” the receptionist explained.  
Her entire face deflated. Worlds was eight weeks away.  
“I don’t know if Dr. Hodges explained but -”  
“Yes, I know that it is urgent, we’ll call if there are any cancellations”  
“Okay thank you”, her mom turns towards her, “c’mon hun, I’ve texted your dad and he’s going to meet us at the ice cream shop by the house”.  
She looks into her mom’s eyes for comfort, but finds none. Her mom’s usually sparkling green eyes were cloudy with fear. She bites her lip to stop the tears and, for the first time in what seems like forever, she burrows her head into her mom’s side and holds on with all her might. 

\-----

 

It’s not a situation she wanted to find herself in. Her mom sits next to her in the booth while her dad sits across and for a good five minutes, no one has anything to say. They eat their ice cream in an uncomfortable silence, her dad finishing his before he decides to break the ice.  
“So is practice on tomorrow, kiddo? Or do you need another day?”  
“I don’t know, dad. The doctor said it could be 4-6 weeks to really know what’s going on” she presses.  
“You tell me what you want to do, Stella. This is your season, I’m just the coach.” Scott tells her with sincerity.  
Tessa takes her daughters free hand that isn’t holding her ice cream cone and squeezes it. “Maybe you should take the rest of the week off. See how your legs feel with a little break. I know worlds is soon, but you can take some time off.”  
“If you are in that much pain, I think your mom has a great idea” he agrees.  
“I guess I’ll take the rest of the week off” Stella hesitates. “I just really want to go to worlds” she pleads.  
“I know, honey” Scott says as he puts his hand over top of Tessa’s which is interlaced with Stella’s.

\----  
Stella, still a bit weary of how her dad is handling the news, decides to head home with her mom. They stop at Grandma Kate’s house to pick up Jenna who, as usual is bouncing with energy. Stella tries to put on a happy face for her but even little J picks up on it.

When they get to the house, Jenna slips her hand into Stella’s and drags her to her room. “Stell, I’ve got something that gonna make you smile, mom and dad don’t even know I have it” she whispers while they walk.

\---- 

“I know you want to be cautious, and I do too but she can’t take too many days off, Worlds is close” he said once he was sure Stella was out of sight.  
“Scott the doctor said that-”  
“Yes, Tessa, why don’t you tell me what the doctor said, the doctor that you took my daughter to without my knowledge” he said, his voice thick with resentment.  
“Scott,” Tessa tried.  
“MY daughter, MINE. Tessa you can’t just do this. I’m also the coach, you don’t think either of those titles give me the right to be at her appointments. Or know that she’s even going?  
“Our daughter, Scott. I think it’s -”  
“I don’t care what you think. I should have been there. A text telling me that she’s not going to be practicing for the rest of the day doesn’t cut it. You can’t just make these decisions without” Scott stops short, noticing two sets of stunned eyes from the staircase behind Tessa.  
Tessa narrows her eyes, “That’s not what I intended, I was just -”  
“Not now” he snapped, walking off towards the study.  
Tessa sighed, walking away from the stairs she head into their kitchen and collapsed her head onto the counter. For the second time in her life, this injury had left her isolated. 

\---  
Stella wasn’t oblivious, she knew what it probably was and she had read about her mom’s experience but she never thought they’d be that dumb to revert to their previously broken and bent communication patterns. So when she overheard them shutting down, she did what anyone would do. She grabbed Jenna’s hand and whisked her away, playing “skating competition” till she forgot about how mad he was. Then she set out to fix the problem. She couldn’t fix her legs but she could fix this - she had a plan. 

She took one look at her mom head down in the kitchen and knew she had to work her magic on her dad first. She quickly put her hair into what her mom called “Reese in Walk the Line curls” and tiptoed into the study.  
“Hey there” she said, taking a seat next to him on the couch. “You know what dad? I’m proud of you.”  
“Me?” he asked with confusion. “Stella, I’m sorry if I was a bit -”  
“Yeah you, you went through this twice with mom and never, not once, did you ever give up on her or stop talking or anything”  
“Wait what?” he said putting down his magazine. “Twice? With Tess?”  
She just stared at him. “Dad, its compartment.”

**Author's Note:**

> Come yell at us @bestiescottandtessa / @tessaandscotttrash on tumblr or @taliavirtuemoir on twitter


End file.
